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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
"At the end of the universe lies the beginning of vengeance." Khan Noonien Singh escapes from his exile on the dessert world of Ceti Alpha V and seeks to avenge himself upon now-Admiral James T. Kirk who marooned him and his crew there so many years ago. The Wrath of Khan, the second Star Trek feature film installment, is traditionally regarded by fans as the best in the series, and considered by many non-fans as an excellent science-fiction picture. Summary In the 23rd century... a female Vulcan officer sits in the command chair of the Starship Enterprise. While the senior crew work at their bridge consoles, the Vulcan officer, Saavik, makes a log entry: "Captain's log, stardate 8130.3. Starship ''Enteprise on training mission to Gamma Hydra. Section 14, coordinates 22-87-4. Approaching Neutral Zone, all systems normal and functioning.'' Saavik orders Lt. Commander Sulu to project a parabolic course to avoid entering Neutral Zone. Then, however, Uhura receives a distress call from the Kobayashi Maru, a fuel carrier which has struck a gravitic mine in close proximity to Altair VI...inside the Neutral Zone. Despite warning from both Sulu and Spock, Saavik orders to ship to enter the Zone to beam the Koyabashi Maru survivors aboard. Upon entering, however, Enterprise is confronted with three Klingon battlecruisers, who almost immediately open fire. Enterprise is heavily damaged; many of the bridge officers are killed. Saavik has no alternative but to order the surviving crew to abandon ship. Then the filtered voice of Admiral Kirk is heard. The viewscreen of the bridge slide across, revealing a lighted room beyond. The ''Kobayashi Maru'' was a test–one Saavik does not believe to have been a fair test of her abilities. Kirk argues that the no-win scenario is a situation every commander may face, and that how one faces death is equally important as how one faces life. Outside the simulator room, Spock awaits Kirk's approval of the trainee cadets' performance. Although Kirk notes that the trainees wreaked havoc with the simulator room and Spock alike, the latter recalls Kirk's own Kobayashi Maru, noting that the Admiral took the test three times and that his final solution was somewhat "unique". Kirk then thanks Spock for his birthday present, an antique copy of "A Tale of Two Cities". That evening, Dr. McCoy over a bottle of Romulan ale, attempts to pursuade the Admiral to get back his starship command. Meanwhile, Commander Chekov is on board the [[USS Reliant|USS Reliant]] which orbits planet Ceti Alpha VI in connection with Project Genesis. Reliant is on search for a lifeless planet, to satisfy the requirements of a test site for the Genesis experiment. Although Ceti Alpha VI should be incapable of supporting life, Chekov detects a minor energy flux reading on one of the dynoscanners. Thus Chekov and Captain Terrell beam down to the surface to investigate. Upon arrival, they fight themselves through clouds of dust until they discover and enter what appears to be a crashed derelict vessel. However, soon after they find that the "derelict" is none other than the ''Botany Bay'', a ship Chekov remembers but all too well. Panicking, he rushes Terrel toward the exit...only to find a group of people awaiting them there. After they are bustled back into the interior of the Botany Bay, their captor reveals himself as none other than Khan Noonien Singh. In order for the Starfleet officers to reveal their motivations, Khan forces juvenile Ceti eels into their ears in order to render them subservient to his every command. Chekov lures Admiral Kirk to research station Regula I, by informing Dr. Carol Marcus, head of the Genesis project, that Kirk has ordered to Genesis Device to be transferred to Reliant upon that vessel's arrival. Dr. Marcus contacts Kirk, upon which the latter orders Enterprise to set a course for Regula I. Arriving, Enteprise finds the Reliant awaiting them. Despite being unable to contact Reliant, Kirk is reluctant to raise shield–as Saavik reminds him, regulations subscribe. Reliant opens fire, disabling Enterprise's main power. Only by using Reliant'ss command codes to drop her shields, Kirk is able to save Enterprise from further damage. Arriving at Regula I, Kirk and company find the station's crew killed, and discover Chekov and Terrell inside a compartment. The two relate the horrible story of finding Khan and their subsquent infestation. Exploring the station leads the away team to a transporter that had recently been activated. Checking the coordinates, Kirk realizes they beamed into the Regula asteroid and follows, finding himself and the team inside a chamber. There is the Genesis Device, but before Kirk can move, he is attacked by none other than his son, David Marcus, who accuses Kirk of trying to steal Genesis. Dr. Carol Marcus, David's mother, defuses the situation, but before she can elaborate, the team is threatened by Chekov and Terrell who are forced by Khan to kill Kirk. Terrell, unable to comply, kills himself, and Chekov collapses, the worm crawling out of his ear. Khan, shocked to find Kirk alive and well, vows to leave him marooned on Regula for enternity. Dr. Carol Marcus then continues to show Kirk, McCoy and Saavik the "Genesis Cave", which was created by a smaller Genesis Device: deep within Regula now exists a stable ecosystem that was created in days. The away team, however, is rescued by Enterprise, which was able to restore enough power to beam them aboard. Unfortuantely, she cannot outrun the far less damaged Reliant, so Kirk decides to take rafuge in the nearby Mutara Nebula, whose ionized gases disrupt the shields of both vessels. Khan orders Reliant to pursue–a game of cat-and-mouse follows with each vessel sniping at each other but missing. When Reliant is able to hit Enterprise's photon torpedo bay section, it brings lethal damage to the vessel's warp drive systems, Main Engineering flooding with radiation. Kirk is nevertheless able to beat Khan because of his superior starship combat experience. Reliant is crippled and crawls away trailing plasma. Most of Khan's crew is killed in the process. With no hope left of defeating Kirk, he decides that if he can't have Genesis, then no one will. He sets off a cascade int he Genesis Device, and Enterprise cannot escape. Unnoticed, Spock slips out of the bridge, while Kirk orders to feel with "best possible speed". Khan observes: "No, Kirk, you can't get away. From hell's heart...I stab at thee. From hate's sake I spit my last breath...at thee." Spock arrives in Engineering only to be stopped from entering the radiated compartment by Dr. McCoy. Spock incapacitates McCoy, and appears to mind meld with the doctor. "Remember..." On the brige, Sulu exlaims that warp drive is back online, upon which Kirk quickly orders the helmsman out of the vacinity. Enterprise streaks away just as the Genesis Device, and Reliant with it, explodes, creating the Genesis Planet. Then McCoy contacts Kirk, telling him to get down there, upon which Kirk notices the empty chair at the science station. Kirk rushes down to Engineering to find Spock, disfigured and dying of the radiation. Kirk calls out fo Spock and follows the dying Vulcan around the side of the glass, finally resting against it, unable to comprehend that his friend is in there, dying. Spock attempts to explain to Kirk his reasoning: "Don't grieve, Admiral...it's logical...the needs...of the many...outweigh-", to which Kirk replies, "The needs of the few", and Spock nods. "Or the one..." Kirk, choked up with grief, can't reply. "I have been...and always shall be...your friend. Live long...and prosper." He holds out his hand, in the tradional Vulcan salute, and Kirk presses his hand up to the glass as well, watching as Spock slumps to the floor, dead. It takes all of his resolve to keep his composure as he sees his closest friend die in front of him. This time there is no going back. Spocks funeral is held later, on the torpedo deck. Kirk takes a moment to figure out what to say, what would befit Spock, and finally settles on: "Out of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most...human." Later on the bridge, Dr. McCoy, Carol Marcus and Kirk stare at the Genesis Planet on the main viewscreen. Kirk softly quotes the last lines of "A Tale of Two Cities"; something Spock was trying to tell him on his birthday. Upon McCoy's inquiry how Kirk feels, he answers: "Young. I feel young." Memorable Quotes "What's in this one–Klingon aphrodisiacs?" : - Kirk, opening McCoy's second present "Get your command back, Jim... before you become a part of this collection. Before you really do grow old." : - McCoy "He's never what I expect, sir." "What surprises you, lieutenant?" "He's so–human." "Nobody's perfect, Saavik." : - Saavik and Spock, in Vulcan "They're requesting communications, sir." "Let them eat static!" "They're still running with shields down." "Of course. We are one big, happy fleet. Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon p proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space." : - Khan and Joachim, on approaching the Enterprise "Khan!" "You still remember, Admiral... I cannot help but be touched. ''I, of course, remember you." : - '''Kirk' and Khan, at their first meeting "You did it!" "I did ''nothing – except get caught with my britches down! I must be getting senile. Lieutenant – you go right on quoting regulations! In the meantime, let's see how badly we've been hurt." : - '''Sulu' and Kirk "He's highly intelligent, but inexperienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking." : - Spock "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" : - Kirk "I don't like to lose." : - Kirk, to Saavik "I don't believe in the no-win scenario." : - Kirk, to Saavik "You lied." "I exaggerated." : - Saavik and Spock about the Enterprise's damage reports "No, Kirk, you can't get away. 'From Hell's heart... I stab at thee. For hate's sake I spit my last breath... at thee'." : - Khan, quoting Melville's Moby Dick as he dies "Sir – the mains are back on line!" "Bless you, Scotty – Go, Sulu!" : - Cadet, Kirk, ordering warp speed "No, Jim, you'll flood the whole compartment!" "He'll die!" "Sir, he's dead already." (pause) "It's too late, Jim." : - McCoy, Kirk, and Scott, regarding Spock "Do not grieve, admiral... It's logical... The needs... of the many... outweigh–" "The needs of the few." "Or the one... I never took... the ''Kobayashi Maru test... until now... what do you think of my solution?... I have been... and always shall be... your friend. Live long... and prosper." : - '''Spock', his "last" words to Kirk "Out of all of the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most...human." : - Kirk, during Spock's memorial Background Information * This is the first apparance of the red jacket uniform. * Many of the outer space scenes in the first half of the movie are reused from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. These include the Klingon battlecruisers in the Kobayashi Maru sequence, the Enterprise's departure from drydock and footage of her going to warp. * The skyline scene from Kirk's apartment window was the same backdrop used in a skyline scene from the movie "The Towering Inferno". It was cheaper than creating a new one. * Khan's remark to Chekov, "I never forget a face," is somewhat ironic, since Khan's appearance in TOS: "Space Seed" was in the first season... and Chekov did not make his first appearance until TOS' second season. It is possible, however, that Chekov was on the Enterprise at the time and Khan had seen him offscreen. In fact, as noted on the Special Edition DVD's text commentary, Walter Koenig often joked (at conventions and in interviews) that his character had made Khan wait overly long to use a bathroom on Khan's visit to the Enterprise and that was why Khan remembered his face so well. * The Regula I space laboratory is a reuse of the orbital office complex model from Star Trek: The Motion Picture - turned upside down. It would later be reused to represent numerous other starbases throughout TNG and DS9. * The film was released in a Director's Edition DVD format in 2002. See ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' (Director's Edition) for more details. * The events of the film were novelized by Vonda N. McIntyre; see ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' (novel). * At a high level the characters of Khan and Kirk can be seen, respectively, as Captain Ahab and the great white whale from the novel Moby Dick (which was found among Khan's possessions). Khan quoted several lines from the novel almost exactly (even down to his dying curse). The ambiguous allegorical nature of the novel was not reproduced in the film, however. * The film earned $14,347,221 at the US box office in its opening weekend, a record at the time. * As with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount filed for and obtained Design Patents on some of the costumes, props (including the Ceti eel), and ships from this film. Production Script Despite its weaknesses, Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been a success, so it came as no surprise that Paramount Pictures decided to develop a sequal. With Gene Roddenberry stepping into the background, Star Trek was handed over to executive producer Harve Bennett. It was Bennett's job to develop a script that could be filmed on a reasonable budget and put a new Star Trek feautre in the theatres in the summer of 1982. One of his biggest problems was finding the right approach to the material. The Motion Picture had adopted a very serious and epic style, which many felt was inappropriate. Somehow, the sequal would have to capture the essential heart of the show and give the audiences what they had been waiting for. Bennett watched all original Star Trek episodes in preparation for his task. His thrawl through the episodes provided him with what he had been looking for. He was determined that his movie would have something the first one lacked–a real villain. When he saw "Space Seed", Bennett was struck by Ricardo Montalban's performance as Khan, and decided that he would make the perfect villain for the film. In November 1980, Bennett wrote his first treatment called "Star Trek II: The War of the Generations". In this story Kirk is called to investigate a rebellion on a Federation world. En route, he saves a woman he was once in love with and learns that their son–whom he never knew had been born–is one of the leaders of the rebellion. Upon arrival at the planet, Kirk is captured and sentenced to death by his own son, before we learn that Khan is truly the mastermind behind the uprising. Kirk joins forces with his son to fight Khan, and the film ends with Kirk's son joining the crew of the Enterprise. Bennett had already decided that one of the film's major themes would be the aging of the characters. In the drafts that followed, Kirk was consistently confronted with a son he knew little about, Spock was often UNDER CONSTRUCTION '... we're introducing Captain Kirk. I think we need a little drama here. So here's what I want to do. When those doors open, the room is filled with smoke, and I want him to emerge in silhouette. I want the strongest backlight you can give him, directly behind him, so that when he walks through there are fingers of light that sorround him in the smoke. I want it to look like the Second Coming.' The original version shot was not powerful enough for Sallin, so he made sure that it was reshot. Appendices Cast * William Shatner as James T. Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy * James Doohan as Scotty * Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov * George Takei as Hikaru Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Bibi Besch as Carol Marcus * Merritt Butrick as David Marcus * Paul Winfield as Captain Terrell * Kirstie Alley as Saavik * Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien Singh * Judson Scott as Joachim * Ike Eisenmann as Peter Preston * John Vargas as Jedda * John Winston as Kyle * Paul Kent as Beach * Nicholas Guest as Cadet * Russell Takaki as Madison * Kevin Sullivan as March * Joel Marstan as Crew Chief * Teresa E. Victor as Bridge Voice * Dianne Harper as Radio Voice * David Ruprecht as Radio Voice * Marcy Vosburgh as Computer Voice * Steve Bond as Khan's henchman #1 * Brett Baxter Clark as Khan's henchman #2 * Tim Culbertson as Khan's henchman References allergy; Altair VI (Altair system); Armageddon; "Amazing Grace"; Antares maelstrom (Antares system); bagpipes; Bible; birthday; Boy Scouts; bridge; bridge (card game); Ceti Alpha; Ceti Alpha system; Ceti Alpha V; Ceti Alpha VI; Ceti eel; Christmas tree; class D; comm-pic; craylon gas; crewman; dynoscanner; Einstein, Albert; ''Enterprise'', USS; ''Enterprise''-class; funeral; Gamma Hydra; Gamma Hydra sector; Genesis Device; Genesis Planet; gravitic mine; ''K't'inga''-class, katra; King Lear; Klingons; Klingon Neutral Zone; Kobayashi Maru; ''Kobayashi Maru'' scenario; log buoy; medical tricorder; midshipman; Moby Dick; Mutara Nebula; Mutara Nebula, Battle of the; Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; phaser emitter; phaser type-2; photon torpedo; prefix code; Project Genesis; radiation poisoning; Regula; Regula I;''Reliant'', USS; Retinax V; Romulans; Romulan ale; Starfleet Corps of Engineers; Starfleet General Orders; Surak; tactical situation monitor; Tale of Two Cities, A; Tau Ceti; Tau Ceti IV; Tiberian bat; tricorder; Vulcan language External Links * * * Filming Locations at Northern California Movies Wrath of Khan, The de:Star Trek II: Der Zorn des Khan es:Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan fr:Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan nl:Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan sv:Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan